


Cut You Loose

by Callian



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Feels, Gen, It's too late, life goes on - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-06-30 12:06:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19852831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callian/pseuds/Callian
Summary: "They can take your world. They can take your heart. Cut you loose from all you know. But if it's your fate then every step forward will always be a step closer to home."After sacrificing his heart to save Kairi, Sora makes his way back to the Destiny Islands to be reunited with his friends. Only to realize that it's too little too late."Wait, does Riku have a ponytail!?!""Riku had a ponytail for over two decades."





	Cut You Loose

There was a legend on the Destiny Islands. About how, when a young maiden was dying, her lover beseeched the Gods for help. They agreed to spare the girl, but in exchange, the lover could never be with her again. Thus, the girl was saved, but her love was lost, placed high above the world where she could never reach. The maiden cried for seven straight years, her tears flooding the world, until little land remained and she dissolved into the water. Thus was formed the ocean. Seeing his lover’s state, the man tried to embrace her, hoping to comfort her and tell her it would be fine. But he couldn’t, and his body was stretched all around the world, covering it completely. Thus was formed the sky. And it is said, that when the ocean rises, it is the girl reaching out to try and hold her lover once more. And when it rains, it is the man mourning the fact he can never hold his love again.

“Wait,” Sora asks, “Does Riku have a _ponytail?”_ He’s sitting by the Paopu Fruit Tree, holding a photo album in his hands. On one page, there’s a picture of a man who distinctly looks like Riku the last time they saw each other, but with maybe two or three more years added on. The photo is taken from an angle and Riku’s giving the camera a sidelook, but smirking all the same.

“Riku had a ponytail for over two decades,” Kairi said, “I still remember to look of horror on Sora- er, Sora Jr.’s face when he saw his father without it. The poor boy nearly had a heart attack!”

He looks up suddenly from the book, eyes wide. “Wait, Sora? Riku named his kid after me?” he asks.

Kairi smiles sadly for a moment, and nods. “Yes, he did,” she says, “You didn’t really leave much behind, so he wanted something to remember you by.” Kairi’s hair is white now. Her skin’s receded into wrinkles and bone, but she still has the same fire in her eyes that Sora always knew her for. Though it was… dimmed with time. Still there, though, all the same.

“Well, where’s old Sora Jr. now?” Sora asks jovially.

Kairi chuckles. “Right now? He lives in Twilight Town,” she said, “Married a baker named Geo. His daughter became a Keyblade Master about three years ago.”

Sora nods for a moment, eyes focusing on the picture of Riku. But he shakes his head and continues flipping. “Who was his mother?” he asks as he takes in a picture of Terra drunkenly holding a bouquet out to Lea with Ven and Xion trying to hold back their laughter in the background.

“Naminé, if you can believe it,” Kairi says, “Those two became extremely close.”

Sora stops at another picture together, and narrows his eyes. “Hey, what’s this?” he asks.

“Hm?” Kairi asks, leaning over, “Oh, yes, Mickey’s funeral. That was… that was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to go to in my life. It was the first one, you see. The first of so many funerals.”

Sora looks towards her. Kairi’s mind is far away, drifting towards long-ago memories that he never even knew had passed until a couple hours ago. When he’d shown up at her door, not wanting to believe the old woman who answered was really his childhood friend. “How many so far?” he asks.

“Let’s see, after Mickey there was Isa, Hayner, Olette, Roxas, Xion, Terra, Aqua… can’t remember who came after that if it was Ventus or Naminé or Lea. Those were pretty close together. After that… it was Riku,” she says, “We’d known it was coming for a while. We tried everything we could: high quality potions, healing magic, everything. But, it just wasn’t enough,” she says, “You know, before he died, Riku said his biggest regret was never finding you. Even when everyone, even me, had given up hope that you’d come back, he still believed you would. He… he said he wished we could’ve sat at the tree together one more time. That’s all he ever wanted.” Her voice cracks and she drifts off again, thinking back to all the regrets and triumphs she must have had over the years.

Sora’s eyes are drawn to a red-colored album that Kairi had discreetly moved off to the side earlier. He got the impression that there was something in there she didn’t want him to see. He considered respecting that and just ignoring it, but Sora felt it was something important that he needed to know. So, sticking out his arm, he quickly snatched the album before Kairi had the chance to react.

“Hm? Sora, no, not-“ she said as he opened it. Right there, on the first page, was a single photo that took up more than half of the page. He recognized so many faces in it. Roxas with blue-dyed hair and standing next to Xion, who wore a sundress and had grown her hair out. Terra had interlocked arms with another man (He remembered him from another picture. Kairi had said his name was Yazora.) Aqua was in a blue and white tux, standing taller than everyone else there. Ventus, on the other hand, was in a green tux and stood next to a girl with long, black hair and… Marluxia and Larxene? There was a story there, Sora could tell. Lea and Isa stood next to Roxas and Xion, with Hayner Pence, and Olette smirking away beside them. Riku, with that stupid ponytail, was standing next to a noticeably pregnant Naminé. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Daisy, Miney, and Pluto stood as a group off in the lower corner of the photo. But it wasn’t any of them that drew Sora’s attention. It was a man in a tux with brown hair that had a white streak going through it standing next to a smiling Kairi… who wore a white gown and veil.

“Ah, my wedding,” she said, “Don’t let the photo fool you. The whole thing was a royal mess. Got attacked by a new strand of Heartless in the middle of it. Did you know that if a Heartless is made with the Light in someone’s heart as opposed to its Darkness, a normal Keybalde can’t hurt it? Because we sure didn’t. Took Axel and Isa tapping into their old Nobody powers and leveling the venue to get them to go away.”

Sora doesn’t reply to that, just focuses on the man in the picture. He’d seen him in a few of the other pictures (most notably of one where Riku’s punching him in the face), but he hadn’t really thought much of him. Just figured he was one of the people they became friends with after he’d… gone. But, now that he was seeing this he can’t help but wonder. “Who was he?” Sora asked.

Kairi chuckles. “His name was Rayga. He was Luxu… er, Xigbar’s, son from his previous life,” she explained.

Sora jumps up. “ _Xigbar!?!”_ he asks, then he pauses “Wait… why’d you call him Luxu?”

“Sora, please,” Kairi said, “For both those explanations it’s far too long, and by the time I’ve finished explaining it to you, I’ll have keeled over from old age. Let’s just say he was even more fond of convoluted plans that screw everyone over than Xehanort was and _leave it at that._ ”

Sora nods. “Uh, right,” he said. He looks back down at the picture and lets out a sigh. “Do you mind if I-“ he begins.

Kairi narrows her eyes in confusion before her face lights up and she nods. “Oh! Yes, go ahead,” she says.

Carefully, Sora takes the picture out of its seal and looks at it. He wonders how she and Rayga met. How he won her heart. What their life together was like. How she balanced Keyblade Master duties and raising a family. All of it. He’d already me Kairi’s daughter and knew she also had a son. Sora guessed Rayga was their father. And this photo. Who was Yazora, and how did they meet? Roxas and Xion look like they’re together, but he distinctly remembers Kairi saying Roxas and Olette were married. (Though, he does also remember an off-handed remark about how Roxas’s lovelife was a mess of his own making.) And Riku and Naminé with their son Sora. What was their life like? His mind is still trying to process all of this. All the parties and adventures and children and-

He notices tears are starting to fall on the picture and he shoves it into Kairi’s arms so it doesn’t get ruined. “Sora?” she asks, putting the picture in another album so it doesn’t fly away, “Are you okay?”

He’s covering his eyes with arms, hoping to stop the tears. But it doesn’t work, and they just keep running. “I missed it. I missed _everything,”_ he said, “I-I should have been there. _I should have been at your wedding!_ I should have been at Riku’s. I should have been at the funerals and birthday parties and stood with you when you were fighting, _but I didn’t.”_

Kairi throws her arms around him and holds him as tightly as she can. It’s not very tight… not with her age. But she holds him nonetheless. “Because you _couldn’t,”_ she said, “Because all your pieces were broken and you had to pull yourself together again. I’m so _so_ sorry you had to go through that, Sora. I really am.”

“What do I do now?” he said, “You two- you and Riku- you were the only thing that kept me going. Because I knew, I _knew,_ that when I pulled myself out of that abyss, you’d be there waiting for me with everyone else.”

“And then we weren’t,” Kairi said, “And I can’t apologize enough for that, Sora. Maybe if we’d just believed in you more, if we’d held onto you a little longer, then-…”

“It wouldn’t have made a difference, Kairi,” he said.

She nods and rests her head on his shoulder. They stay like that, surrounded by remnants of a life they should have lived together, but never had the chance to. Eventually, the tears stop falling and Sora’s breath evens, but his hold doesn’t loosen.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said, “Is there… is there anyone left?”

Kairi lets go so that they can see each other’s faces. She nods. “Yes, Goofy and Donald are still around,” she said, “Turns out the residents of Disney Town live longer lives than the rest of us unless they’re preemptively cut short. You’ll still find them there, same as they always have been.” She turns Sora so that he directly faces her and places both her hands on his shoulders. “Sora, I need you to promise me two things,” she says.

He nods. “Anything.”

“First, I don’t want you to come back to the Destiny Islands. Not even for my funeral,” she says, “It’ll only hold you back.”

“What? No, I can’t-“ he begins to argue, but Kairi interrupts him.

“Promise me,” she says.

He pauses and swallows before nodding. “I promise,” he says, “W-what’s the second thing?”

“Live,” Kairi says, “Don’t let our memory keep you from having your own life. Win, fail, laugh, cry, lose everything on a gamble and get it back again. Make new friends and fall in love. You’re still young, don’t forget that.”

“But… but what about you and Riku and everyone else,” he said, “I’m not… I’m not going to replace you.”

“And you won’t,” she said, “Just as Rayga was never you, whoever you find next will never be us. But that’s okay. They don’t have to be. They just need to make you happy. Shouldn’t be too hard for you. You’re a master at making new friends.”

Sora nods, unable to do anything more. Kairi pulls him in and he raps his arms around her, remembering when they were young and ready to take on every world together. Her hair still smelled like it used to. Like high tide after a rainstorm. He supposes that should have been a clue as to how this would turn out. Considering the legend and all that. But he didn’t know.

“Speaking of which,” Kairi says, letting go, “You should know that Sora Jr.’s daughter, Leno, is a very nice girl and right around your age.”

Sora goes cold as he stares at Kairi in horror. “ _Kairi, that’s disgusting!”_ he says, “That’s… that’s Riku’s _granddaughter._ I mean, I had a crush on her grandfather back when I was _ten.”_

“And you dated her godmother for a hot minute when you, er- I, was nineteen,” Kairi replies, “If Terra can get away with dating Xehanort’s uncle that got blasted into the future, you can get away with dating Riku’s granddaughter after getting blasted into the future.”

Sora freezes, before quickly grabbing the wedding photo from the album Kairi had stored it in and pulling it back into view. He narrows his eyes at the silver-haired man that seemed to be Terra’s plus-one to the wedding. “Wait, Yazora is Xehanort’s _uncle!?!”_ he cried.

“Yeah, remember how, when we were fighting Xehanort, everything started to get kinda complex?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Sora replied.

“It didn’t get any better,” she said.

Sora nodded, not wanting to know the full story.

“Mom?” a voice behind them said, “It’s getting kinda late. We better get you home.” They turned around to see Kairi’s daughter, Nami, crossing the bridge to the small island. She was older than Sora (something that seriously messed with him even more than Kairi) and had a good balance of features from both her parents.

Kairi nodded, and began to try and get up. Sora kneeled down and helped lift her up and escorted her away. He held her all the way to the boat, and then all the way back to her house. It wasn’t the same house she grew up in- a mansion that had since been torn down for a newer model. No, this was just a small house at the top of a hill just outside town. He’s not sure why she insists on living somewhere that’s hard for her to get to, but she says it helps keep her in shape and she doesn’t mind. When supper’s done and they finish catching up, he takes the couch. Nami insists he can use the room she usually uses, but he’d much rather sleep somewhere else.

When morning came, they stood at the entrance to the house and he held her one last time. Neither of them wanted to let go, but they knew they had no choice. This was goodbye. One final farewell. As he made his way to Nami’s Gummiship, he turned around and waved one last time at the woman in the distance. “Goodbye, Kairi,” he whispered.

He didn’t need to hear her to know what she said back.

On the Gummiship, Nami asked him which world he wanted to go to. “Disney Town,” he said, “Kairi said that some old friends are still there.” Nami nodded and powered up the Gummiship, blasting away to the great beyond. Sora turned around and watched as the Destiny Islands disappeared behind them. It all seemed so final. The last goodbye. The last farewell. So many years of fighting so that the three of them could go back together, and now they never could.

He didn’t know what came next. He didn’t know who came next. All he knew was that nearly everything he had built and cherished was gone now. Because he had given himself up to save Kairi. Because he couldn’t see any world existing without her.

And as they fly off towards Disney Town, Sora thinks back to every battle he fought. Every foe he faced. He realizes that now, nearly everyone he fought to protect is now gone. A corpse in the ground and a life fully lived. They got the chance he wanted to give them. He just missed it.

“Thank you, for taking me to her when you found me,” he tells Nami.

“Thank you for saving her,” she replies back.

They travel in silence, neither him nor Nami sharing a word. They wouldn’t know what to say to each other anyways. He was a story, some far-off person her mother talked about a lot that never seemed fully real until now. Nami was a complete stranger to him. One that he didn’t have the strength to get to know. So they travel, hoping for the ride to end soon.

And if she notices him crying, she doesn’t say a word. She wouldn’t know what to say anyways.

**Author's Note:**

> Seven days later, Nami returned to the Destiny Islands to discover her mother had died in her sleep. The funeral was a small one, as she did not have many friends remaining. Queen Minnie Mouse delivered a speech in the place of Sora, who did not attend.
> 
> Not sure if I should keep it here or elaborate on this AU.


End file.
